The Judaizers have been working really hard to lure the Galatian believers back into the world of religious legalism. It seems as though that these opponents of freedom in Christ have decided to adopt a two-fold strategy. With the Galatians being new to the faith and too immature to truly enjoy this new freedom this produced some great insecurities in them. Playing on these insecurities the Judaizers presented the Law of Moses and the traditions of the Jewish elders as the answers to that insecurity. The second part of the strategy was to discredit Paul. They attempted this by saying that he was not really a true apostle and that he was trying to gain the approval of men. So Paul mounts a very forceful campaign to hit the challenges of the Judaizers head-on. We could call this strategy of Paul the “Gospel Factor.” In this strategy Paul simply reminds the Galatian believers of the nature of the Gospel. In doing this Paul does an excellent job of defining the Gospel and showing the profound effect that it has on the lives of individuals and his life in particular. Let’s examine the Gospel factor.
I. The Gospel is Good News revealed by God.
A. Neither Paul nor any other man invented the Gospel that Paul presented to the Galatians.
1. The phrase “something that man made up” is literally “not according to man,” signifying that the true gospel draws neither its origin nor its authority from men.
2. The gospel message did not come to me through human channels—it was not mediated to Paul through any man; and his preaching of the gospel has not been guided by human motives and ambitions.
3. The most likely accusation the Judaizers made against Paul was that he owed his salvation and gospel knowledge to Peter and James and that he had to turn to them for the approval of his teaching.
4. Paul quickly points out that he became a believer well before he ever met any of these leaders.
5. Literally “unknown by face,” Paul had so little contact with Jerusalem and the other apostles that he would not have been recognized if the Christians of that area were to meet him.
6. Following his baptism by Ananias (Acts 9:18) Paul did not seek out Christian leaders to learn the gospel from them. He did not consult “any man.”
7. God’s plans for him called for a period of three years away from any of the leaders of the church, as proof that his message was from heaven.
B. Paul received the gospel in a revelation directly from Jesus Christ.
1. On the Damascus Road, Jesus Christ himself appeared to Paul as the revealing one; what he disclosed was the true nature of the gospel, the content of the message Paul was commissioned to preach.
2. Revelation points to a divine implanting of knowledge in Paul’s mind, not a fallible human effort to memorize and understand a body of facts. God revealed; Paul received.
3. None of the truth of the gospel depended on Paul’s efforts to learn or remember. As with the other apostles, inspired truth was not a human work, but a work of the Spirit.
4. It is God, and not man, who stands behind the gospel Paul, now preaches.
5. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24—NIV)
C. The main message of this revealed Good News.
1. Jesus, who had everything to lose, became a nobody in the world in order that we might become somebody.
2. How could this be invented…It is nowhere near what we would expect. In fact it is not even what we would want of God.
3. However when you consider the overall theme of Galatians, “Christ died to set us free” it makes absolutely perfect sense.
4. This revelation is special. It does not come as a body of facts to be mentally received but as a claim upon our lives to be acknowledged.
5. God has revealed His love and in doing so challenged us to respond.
II. The Gospel is revolutionary Good News.
A. Paul offers, as the best evidence he has concerning the impact of the Gospel, the change in His own life.
1. They may have heard of his early life from Paul’s own lips, but the defection of Gamaliel’s star pupil to Christianity was probably a well known event among Jews everywhere.
2. Paul was a zealous student in his youthful attempt to master the traditions of his fathers.
3. It is interesting that Paul refers to his way of life “in Judaism.” He does not call it a time when he served God under the previous covenant; it is almost as though God had nothing to do with it.
4. Paul shows that there was nothing in his religious background and preconversion life that could have in any way prepared him for a positive response to the gospel.
5. His early career and lifestyle were shaped by a confident attachment to the strictest traditions of Judaism, which in turn had led him to promote hostilities against the believers in Jesus.
6. His intent was to destroy the church, though he could no more have succeeded in his task than a man could conquer a glacier with an ice-pick.
B. Paul’s testimony refutes the “salvation by works” teaching that he was so forcefully trying to stamp out among the Galatians.
1. As the protégé of the famous Jewish theologian Gamaliel, Paul was no doubt regarded as the rising star of Pharisaic Judaism.
2. If knowledge or good works or the observance of religious rules could ever have been sufficient to save someone, Paul was a prime candidate.
3. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. (Philippians 3:5-6—NIV)
4. We should make note of the fact that Paul was not converted from an evil life; he was converted from a good life.
5. Although Paul is necessarily directing a lot of attention to himself in these verses, the real center of Paul’s attention is God. It is God who set him apart, who called him, and who revealed his Son to him. Therefore it is God, and not man, who stands behind the gospel Paul, now preaches.
III. The Gospel is Good News that glorifies God.
A. The Gospel revolutionizes lives that could not be changed any other way.
1. It was only by an act of God that Saul of Tarsus was changed into the Apostle Paul.
2. What amazing news reached the ears of the Judean Christians, the former persecutor is now preaching the Gospel.
3. Paul’s use of the imperfect tense in the Greek stresses that they “kept on hearing” the remarkable report. Perhaps the news was told and retold because many people just found it too incredible to accept on first hearing.
4. This is Paul’s knockout punch to the Judaizers, “The Jewish Christians in Judea were rejoicing because of what God had done in the life of Paul.
5. Paul’s changed life brought joy to the believers who saw him or heard about him. His new life astonished them.
6. Now it was time for the Galatian Christians to cast aside their doubts, get back to the truth, and get on with what God wanted them to do.
B. This passage really does have some good application for us today.
1. This passage raises a question for every Christian, “Has anybody ever congratulated God for me?
2. Can other people see the evidence that God has been at work in me?
3. Although we may not have had as dramatic a change as Paul our new lives should honor God in every way.
4. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31—NIV)
5. When people look at you do they see the changes that God has made in you? If not perhaps it is time to make some changes.
One Sunday a little boy was sitting in his Sunday School class listening intently as his teacher told the remarkable story of the escape of Moses and the Israelites from the clutches of Egypt’s Pharaoh. The students were breathless as she told the story. When she came to the climax, the parting of the Red Sea and the subsequent drowning of the enemy, the little boy couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Good for God!!” he shouted. He was giving glory to God for what He did through Moses. The resurrection of Jesus has caused people everywhere to shout, “Good for God!!” The revolution in the life of Saul of Tarsus has had the same effect.
The shouting should continue today, because as the Lord’s disciples we should seek in big things and little, to live so that others can see His good work in us and shout, “Good for God!!”
